European Choral Association - Europa Cantat: News Feed

The Mock Turtle's Song by Chris Artley wins Composition Competition

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:52:00 +0200

Composition Competition in the frame of Youth Choirs in Movement
The Mock Turtle's Song by Chris Artley is chosen by the jury
The European Choral Association – Europa Cantat published a call for a small composition competition in connection with the festival Youth Choirs in Movement in Bonn in July 2013. The competition called for proposals of choral songs using the theme “Singing and Movement” for children and young people, fitting the
theme of this festival.
14 compositions from 9 countries were submitted and in May 2013 “The Mock Turtle’s Song” by Chris Artley (UK/NZ) was chosen by the Jury. Find further information and a short CV of Chris Artley in the full Press Release >> here
“The Mock Turtle’s Song”, a composition based on a text from “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Caroll, will be performed in the frame of the festival “Youth Choirs in Movement 3“ between July 10th and 14th 2013 by one or several choirs participating in the festival and published by Helbling-Verlag.

“Youth Choirs in Movement“ is part of “VOICE - Vision On Innovation for Choral music in Europe” - www.thevoiceproject.eu.

Mediterranean Voices Conference - Programme online - register now!

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:14:00 +0200

The Mediterranean Voices Conference will take place in Girona, Catalonia, Spain from July 29th to August 1st 2013

What is MEDITERRANEAN VOICES? After the "Voices of the Baltics" in Tallinn in 2007 and "Voices of South-Africa" in Stellenbosch in 2009, this coming 2013 Mediterranean Voices Conference will be coming to Girona in summer 2013. For 4 days, Girona will host musicians, musicologists, composers, conductors and choral singers from different countries in the Northern and Southern Mediterranean area who will offer an overview of the various vocal and choral traditions of the Mare Nostrum. Participants from Non-Mediterranean countries who are interested in discovering the vocal culture of this area are also welcome!

A rich programme of concerts, documentary screenings, exhibitions, conferences, panels and workshops will present experts and artists (composers, soloists, choirs and vocal groups) from more than 10 countries will illuminate Mediterranean vocal music from different points of view: from Cante Jondo of Andalusia to the call to prayers from Istanbul, from the Sephardic songs to the Sardinian vocal groups and to the most intimate forms of familiar songs (lullabies) as well as the extroverted vocal demonstrations. The programme of the festival is now available here! (click on the "day by day" or "by artists" programme for details)

Mediterranean Voices is a unique festival and conference. It will be an opportunity for people culturally anxious to discover new worlds and new voices. It will be the perfect time to enjoy learning from conductors, musicologists, composers, singers, musicians, students and music and culture lovers.

Deadline for applications: 31/5/2013 - register now on http://mediterraneanvoicesconference.wordpress.com/

The Mediterranean Voices Conference is part of the project VOICE - Vision on Innovation for Choral Music in Europe - see www.thevoiceproject.eu

Successful fundraising concert for “Friends of Choral Music in Europe” with Schedrik Choir

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:52:00 +0200

On Saturday, April 20th, a successful fundraising concert took place in the Friedenskirche in Bonn, for the benefit of the association "Friends of Choral Music in Europe”, with music presented by the Schedrik Choir, conducted by Irina and Pavel Brochin. The different choral formations of the Schedrik Choir presented a mixed program under the the motto "Give us water", which delighted the audience. After the concert a total of 501.52 EUR were donated to the association "Friends of Choral Music in Europe".
If you did not make it to the concert but would also like to support the association, you will find more information on how to help >> here.

European Forum on Music - Cathy Al-Ghabra elected to EMC Youth Committee

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:50:00 +0200

European Forum on Music and EMC Youth Day in Glasgow
Cathy Al-Ghabra from the Youth Committee of ECA-EC elected to EMC Youth Committee
Strong choral presence at the Forum through projects and participants

The EMC Youth Day (April 18^th) and the European Forum on Music (April 19^th to 21^st 2013) in Glasgow, organised by the European Music Council (EMC) in cooperation with the Scottish Music Centre . Sessions included latest news on the “Creative Europe” programme with Ann Branch, Community Bulding through Music, Youth as Resource and much more as well as project presentations from members. The weekend concluded with the Annual Meeting (General Assembly) of the European Music Council, at which Cathy Al-Ghabra, member of the Youth Committee of the European Choral Association - Europa Cantat, was elected to the EMC Youth Committee where she will work with other young people from the UK, Finland, France, Czech Republic and Slovakia, representing different national and European or International member associations of the EMC including Jeunesses Musicales International, one of the partners of ECA-EC.

The choral world showed a strong presence at this forum, with President Gábor Móczár, Board member Martí Ferrer, Secretary General Sonja Greiner, VOICE Project Manager Côme Ferrand Cooper, members of the ECA-EC Youth Committee Cathy Al-Ghabra, Flannery Ryan and Jesse Boere, as well as several representatives of member organisations of ECA-EC. Gábor Móczár presented ECA-EC and the history of its merger in the session with Ann Branch from the European Commission / Martí Ferrer did a session on Open Singing where he let the audience sing and move, explained the concept of Open Singing and showed pictures and a short video from the EUROPA CANTAT Festival in Turin / Sonja Greiner made a presentation of the impact a festival such as EUROPA CANTAT has on a city, listing different tangible and intangible results and showing that much more money is spent in the city than is giving by public authorities on local, regional and national level / Cathy Al-Ghabra presented the ECA-EC Youth Committee in the frame of a session called "Youth as Resource" and participated in the preparation and organisation of the Youth Day / Finally ECA-EC presented an exhibition on architecture and music which was first shown in Turin in 2012.

The Forum offered many opportunities for networking, catching up with members and partners in the VOICE project, discussing possible future partnerships (e.g. with the "Singing Nations Network" and the "Singing Cities project" presented by Philippe Rixhon from the Aarya Foundation and with representatives of different associations active in the field of music education) and planning concrete cooperation for future projects such as the Symposium on Singing and Music Education in Budapest in April 2014.

The next European Forum on Music will take place in 2014 in Switzerland (dates to be confirmed) and the next IMC World Forum on Music will happen in Brisbane (Australia) in November 2013.

You will soon be able to read the official press release and reports about the events on www.emc-imc.org/efm

ECmagazine 1/2013 online

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:04:00 +0200

Issue 1/2013 of our ECmagazine is online.

The title page and contents are available for everybody >> here .
The full magazine is available for download for our members in the password-protected section of our website >> here, and since this issue of ECmagazine is devoted to our multiannual cooperation project VOICE, most contents of issue 1/2013 will be made available on the project website www.thevoiceproject.eu

ECA-EC Newsflash April 2013 available on the Website

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:36:00 +0200

The Newsflash of the European Choral Association - Europa Cantat for April 2013 is now available online in English / French / German and will be mailed on Friday, April 19th.
04-13-Newsflash DEUTSCH - European Choral Association - Europa Cantat avril 2013

Donka Miteva (BG) winner of Competition for Young Choral Conductors in St. Petersburg

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:34:00 +0200

At the 7th International Competition for Young Choral Conductors in St Petersburg, Russia, April 3rd-7th, 33-year old conductor Donka Miteva from Bulgaria won the overall 1st prize as well as several special prizes. The 2nd prize of the competition was won by Eun Hye Cho from South Korea and the third prize went to Anton Maximov from Russia.

The special prize of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat which consists of an

assistant conductorship at the EUROPA CANTAT festival in Pécs, Hungary in 2015 was given to Yuval Weinberg from Israel and the scholarship for a promising young conductor, offered by the Noël Minet Fund of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat went to Zoltán Dévity from Hungary.

Further special prizes went to Alexander Humala from Belarus (finalist), Anastasia Belyaeva from Russia and Krastin Nastev from Bulgaria as well as Eun Hye Cho and Anton Maximov. Further details can be found in the full Press Release >> here , the full result list with all prizes and special prizes can be found >> here.

2 participants of the competition (Yuval Weinberg and Alexander Humala) received a

scholarship of the Noël Minet Fund for their participation in this event.

The 2013 edition of the International Competition for Young Choral Conductors, combined with the first International Forum of Choral Conductors in Russia, was organised by the Centre of International Cooperation "Inter Aspect" in collaboration with the St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts and the Central-Eastern European Centre of ECA-EC.

Choral organisations in Europe are encouraged to also invite the newly discovered conducting talents from this year’s competition as workshop leaders to their future events.

Visiting the IFCM General Assembly at the ACDA-convention in Dallas and América Cantat in Bogotá

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:12:00 +0200

In the 2nd part of March Board and staff members of ECA-EC visited major choral events on the American continent:

President Gábor Móczár, representative of ECA-EC on the Board of IFCM, visited the IFCM General Assembly at the ACDA convention in Dallas, USA. Board members Jan Schumacher, Reijo Kekkonen and Jean-Claude Wilkens also visited the event in different functions. You will find more about the event here: acda.org/page.asp

A week later Treasurer Koenraad De Meulder and Secretary General Sonja Greiner visited the América Cantat festival in Bogotá, Colombia, a "sister event" of the EUROPA CANTAT festival, where almost 1.200 participants (including 21 choirs) from 36 countries on 4 continents participated in a workshop programme of choral music across the American continent (plus one EUROPA CANTAT workshop conducted by Josep Vila from Catalonia, Spain). In addition the festival had invited vocal groups and choirs from across the world, including the Swingle Singers, Witloof Bay, Entrevoces from Cuba, the Philippine Madrigal Singers and choirs from Venezuela. There was also a group “Time Ensemble” with former singers of the World Youth Choir. Visit the Facebook page of the festival for further information, pictures and films: www.facebook.com/AmericaCantat7
And find an article by Koenraad de Meulder >> here.

Choral composer Vic Nees dies

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:50:00 +0100

Vic Nees, choral composer, conductor, musicologist, columnist and defender of Flemish music, died on 14 March 2013. His death is a grave loss for the choral world. Every Flemish choir has undoubtedly sung music by Vic Nees. His compositions were very popular abroad and choirs throughout the world performed his music in concert.

Vic Nees (1936-2013) was born in Malines (Mechelen), Belgium, in 1936, He was the son of composer and carillon player Staf Nees (1901-1965). He studied composition under Flor Peeters at the Royal Flemish Conservatorium of Music in Antwerp (Koninklijk Vlaams Conservatorium, Antwerpen) and choral conducting in Hamburg under Kurt Thomas. He was a producer of choral music at the Flemish Radio in Brussels from 1961 to 1970. He was also conductor of the Radio Choir from 1970 to 1996. He played an important role in the choral life of his country and was a member of the jury in many international competitions. Experienced as a conductor of non-professional choirs and involved in amateur choral activities, he knew exactly how to adapt new techniques to the potential of amateur singers. As a composer, he devoted himself mainly to choral music in which text and music blend together in a natural way. In the Low Countries, his choral works are ranked amongst the most remarkable of the last century. His compositions can be heard everywhere, both in and outside Europe. His Magnificat in particular is sung worldwide. After his retirement, composing became his main activity. De zee is een orkest (2000), Trumpet Te Deum (2003), Requiem (2007) and Passio super Galli cantu (2010) are the most important works of that period. In 2011, Davidfonds and Koor&Stem published a monography and catalogue about the composer, called O song.

On the occasion of his death, organisation for vocal music Koor&Stem vzw has written a eulogy entitled Et lux, et lux, et lux perpetua.

The funeral service will take place on Saturday 23 March 2013, at 11.30 am, in the Abdijkerk Sint-Servaas, Kerkplein 1, in Grimbergen, Belgium.

The choral world has lost a great figure: Eric Ericson

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:27:00 +0100

This is a sad week for choral life - Eric Ericson (26/10 1918 – 16/2 2013), the "godfather" of choral music in Europe, passed away on February 15th at the age of 94. Listen to the tribute of the World Youth Choir with Cecila Rydinger-Alin in August 2013 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lrozRmTCC94

The funeral will take place on Monday, March 18.00 at 13.00 in the Storkyrkan in Stockholm.

Condolences can be addressed to Eric's wife Monica Ericson Spangenberg

monica.ericsonspangenberg(at)telia.com, +46 70-2058900